New Tory status of women critic gave grants to anti-abortion centres

The Conservative Party’s new status of women critic gave close to $12,000 in federal grants last summer to two pregnancy care centres in her riding that refuse to refer clients to abortion providers.

On Wednesday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer named Lethbridge MP Rachael Harder, who was first elected in October 2015, to the role in his shadow cabinet. The move comes amid questions over how Scheer — whom anti-abortion groups have praised for having a “pro-life” voting record but who has said he does not plan to reopen the debate — plans to deal with the socially conservative elements of his party, particularly those who oppose abortion.

The Lethbridge and District Birthright Society got $3,383 of that total to create one job, and according to its website believes that “it is the right of every pregnant woman to give birth, and the right of every child to be born.”

The largest chunk of that, or $8,298, is listed as creating two summer jobs at the Lethbridge Pregnancy Care Centre, which is affiliated with the international anti-choice groups Heartbeat International and CareNet, and which states on its website that it does not perform abortions or make referrals to abortion services.

It is also an affiliate of the Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS), which describes itself as a “Christ-centred national ministry dedicated to providing support for life and sexual health by partnering with Pregnancy Centres across Canada,” and is linked to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

The description of such centres as ‘pregnancy care centres’ has long been an issue of concern for pro-choice groups, which suggest the name is misleading for women who may come in unaware of the religious or political affiliations of the centres and then be actively persuaded against choosing abortion through emotional manipulation or inaccurate medical information about abortion procedures.

“These centres are adept at disguising themselves as unbiased places that provide support and accurate information on all options,” said Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, which has conducted extensive research on the activities of such centres in Canada and the government money they receive in the form of grants. “In fact, most are Christian ministries that try to talk women out of having an abortion by using anti-choice propaganda.”

A 2015 Lethbridge Herald article paraphrased Harder saying during a campaign trail town hall that she believed “all Canadian women should have access, regardless of where they live,” to abortion services.

However, a candidate profile compiled shortly after by the anti-abortion Campaign Life Coalition cast doubt on her position.

The profile states that a member of Campaign Life Coalition pulled Harder’s “pro-life” rating on its website and called her campaign team to verify her paraphrased comments in the Lethbridge Herald article.

Harder’s campaign manager apparently returned the call on election day and asked to have the rating restored while at the same time “refusing to confirm or deny the accuracy of what Ms. Harder was alleged to have said.”

Campaign Life Coalition also said in that profile that her campaign manager told them the Lethbridge Herald report “misquoted” Harder.

A spokesperson for RightNow, an anti-abortion group that aims to elect politicians who oppose abortion, praised the appointment of Harder.

“We definitely support Andrew Scheer’s decision to appoint Rachael Harder as the Status of Women critic because as a pro-life and pro-woman organization, we love that she’s repeatedly shown that she’s a powerful voice for Canadian women,” said Alissa Golob, co-founder of RightNow. “Not only has she spoke out against the discrimination of females on a regular basis, she’s also combatted gender-based violence in the House of Commons. As a young woman in politics, we think her appointment is definitely a positive step forward.”

iPolitics reached out to Harder’s team on Wednesday to verify whether she believes that Canadian women should have access to abortion.

“I am very proud to serve as the Shadow Minister for the Status of Women and I look forward to working with my colleagues on all sides of the House to advance shared issues of importance to women and girls,” Harder said in a statement shared by her team Thursday. “As you are aware, it is the official policy of the Conservative Party that a future Conservative Government will not reopen the abortion debate.”

The government is currently in the midst of exploring how it can change the rules on how federal summer job grants are allocated to prevent MPs from any political parties from directing federal money to anti-abortion groups, iPolitics reported exclusively earlier this year.

That news came on the heels of the revelation that Liberal MP Iqra Khalid had distributed more than $56,000 through the Canada Summer Jobs Grant program to the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, a group known for its dogged opposition to abortion and distribution of graphic anti-abortion material, despite having run under the pro-choice banner of the Liberal Party.

That report, also by iPolitics, prompted the government to announce that no Liberal MPs would be allowed to allocate money to such groups for the 2017 program.

The Canada Summer Jobs program provides federal funding to non-profits, public sector employers and small businesses to create summer jobs for students between the ages of 15 and 30. The program, as it stands now, works by allowing each MP to assess applications for funding from groups in their ridings and decide which ones should receive grants.